Pay It Forward

Some of you may have seen the Handmade pay-it-forward posts doing the rounds on facebook at the moment. I am doing this and it got me to thinking it would be fun to do something similar to 'celebrate' the beginning of my blog. I've decided to steer away from the strictly handmade theme of the facebook version to allow more people to get involved. So here's what I thought would happen:
1. You leave a comment on this post and just for fun tell me either about a random act of kindness you have received or one you think it would be fun to receive. I'm happy for this to go international so you don't have to be in NZ to take part.
2. At 8pm NZT on Sunday I'll randomly choose 3 people who will receive a RAOK from me sometime between now and the end of April. I'll post on here that evening who the lucky people are.
3. If you are chosen it is up to you to pay-it-forward. How you do this is entirely up to you. It might be sending someone a random gift, doing something to brighten the day of a friend having a rough time, or a RAOK for a complete stranger. It doesn't have to be a big expense, maybe someone home made from stash, some baking, or extra veges from your garden? You might want to encourage your recipients to pay it forward as well to keep the chain going.

I'd like to think that this is a fun way to inject a bit of cheer into peoples lives in 2011. We all know how easy it is for life to get away from us and weeks to fly by in the standard daily grind, and everyone deserves to feel a little bit special sometimes :-)

Jolly Good Fun

It's always nice when there's a bright spot to an otherwise tough day. Yesterday Mr A was sick with a fever and spent the whole day miserable on the sofa or in bed, poor wee monkey. He brightened up after dinner though and suggested we give Miss M a turn in her Jolly Jumper. Here's the result

Miss M had a ball, she just loves her big brother so much and jumping with him was the best thing ever!

It will never cease to amaze me how kids can have you so worried and then in the blink of an eye they have turned things around and put the biggest smile on your face :-)

A New Year

A new year means resolutions for a lot of people. Personally I'm so rubbish at following through with them that I don't normally bother. I have set myself a few challenges for 2011 however.

The first is this blog. I've thought about starting one on and off for ages now but always put it off, so my first challenge to myself is to keep this going and maybe even have some followers by the end of the year.

My second challenge is to remember to look after myself and take time out for me whenever I get the chance. Whether this is coffee out with a friend, catching up with the local knitting group or crafting when the kidlets are sleeping.

Which leads to my third challenge, or group of challenges. These come from our 2011 Challenge group on Ravelry and are:
* Working through my "must knit" list for this year which includes this for Miss M,

This for Mr A

And this for me

* Finally finishing up some WIPs including my whisper cardy and a long overdue second sock for Mum.
* Stash-busting! So it's time to come clean, here is the bulk of my yarn stash!

I'm not going to make any rash promises of not buying any yarn this year but I do hope to use more than I buy so photos taken at the end of 2011 show a different and smaller stash!

Hi

Well I've been thinking of blogging for ages now and thought with a new year I'd give this blogging gig a go. I expect it will mainly contain ramblings about my knitting, sewing and my lovely wee family (DS who is 3y 8m and DD 3.5m).
Hopefully there will be some people out the who will enjoy sharing my crafting and parenting journey with me.